A good ol' fashioned Japanese barbie

Everyone loves good barbie... and the Japanese are no exception. Instead of the steaks and snags found in the Aussie equivalent, the Japanese have skewers of scrumptious creations known as kushiyaki, all charcoal barbecued to perfection - often with a simple marinade of soya sauce, sugar, sake and mirin (tare sauce) or simply shio - sprinkled with salt.

Craving for a bit of grilled goodness today, I wandered off in search of some kushiyaki for lunch. I was thrilled to stumble upon Kushigin (#01-01 Cuppage Plaza), a little restaurant tucked away in Cuppage Plaza on Orchard Road. This building is filled with surprises - not much of a retail joint - it instead houses several Japanese restaurants often patronised by the local Japanese community. Kushigin is one of these.

I decided on the yakitori bento which is a bit of a misnomer because aside from grilled chicken, the bento comes with grilled pork as well. But I digress. The bento includes an assortment of 5 skewers which are cooked to order. Included in my lunch were grilled chicken with spring onions (yakitori negima), asparagus wrapped in pork (asupara maki), pork loin and belly rolled with shisho leaves (shiso maki), chicken balls (tsukune) and quail eggs. Accompanied by a miso dipping sauce, rice with nori, shitake mushrooms and a minced chicken topping (which I found too sweet for my liking), it made for a very satisfying meal with miso soup and a dessert of azuki bean with Japanese rice cake. Not bad quality for under $15, considering it sits on Orchard Road (Where good food is hard to come by at a reasonable price).

Browsing through the rest of the menu, I noticed other very interesting items on the ala carte menu which I will come back for, including Japanese oysters wrapped in pork belly and pork grilled with tomato, cheese and shiso leaves.

Definitely a good place to come with friends for a bite and an Asahi or two. After all - there's nothing quite like putting another skewer on the barbie.